How To Save a Life
by riverdweller11
Summary: A dream shattered, a life turned upside down. The journey of two lost souls who never wanted to be found.  Glee with a dash of Grey's Anatomy


Hello everybody!

I love both Glee and Grey's Anatomy so what perfect way to unite the fandom but through fanfiction?

Oh and yeah, I believe there are some stories here that are somewhat similar to mine so please be assured that those similarities are indeed unintentional.

-River

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

"Ring...ring...ring..."

The blaring sound of her cell phone ringing brought Rachel back to reality. All too quickly the stage faded, leaving a worn wooden desk in its wake. The bright lights she blissfully bath in gave way to the dull glow of her study lamp while the cheering crowd, to her great dismay, dissolved into piles of books haphazardly scattered in front of her. It was the music though, that glorious harmony of emotions that was so harshly interrupted by the damned phone that truly yanked her out of the dream world.

Taking her time to remove both sleep and dream from her system, she stood up, rubbed her eyes and stretched her aching arms. This has become her nightly routine for quite some time now – study until sleep takes over and wake up in pain from dozing on a hard wooden chair. It was an all too familiar scene, nothing new...except for the dream. How long has it been since a similar dream plagued her? It's been so long that she already lost track of- _Yeah, Rach...who are you kidding? You know full well how long. It's been 5 years, 4 months and-_

"Ring...ring...ring."

The ringtone was generic, so un-Rachel like. The old Rachel would certainly be sporting a Broadway classic and maybe if she's feeling really smug, which was most of the time, a ringtone of herself belting a Streisand out. Come to think of it, the old Rachel would not be found waking up seated on a chair with books for company instead of her music sheets. The old Rachel… yes, _old_ being the key word.

"Ring...ring...ring."

Not answering a call immediately is a grave lapse in judgment and a very irresponsible thing to do...to say the least. But it was her personal line, she reasoned, if it were important her pager would go off and said device had been silent all throughout the night. Still, she found her lack of care and urgency quite unsettling. Usually she'd pick up at the very first ring, dropping whatever it is she's doing to take a call.

_Damn dream_. She was thinking about it too much when she shouldn't.

"Ring...ring...ring..." _All right, all right._

Finding her blackberry under one of her hard bound mammoth of a book, she sighed as she saw the familiar face flashing on the screen. She put her phone on speaker mode and started doing her morning exercises. Some habits do die hard.

"Hi, Rachel." The voice was both deep and soft.

"Eric, it's 4 in the morning… what is it?" She sounded a bit brash but truth is she was glad to hear his voice. He was a reminder of the present, a metaphor for everything new in her life. Metaphors are important. _Old Rachel, please go away now_.

"Oh, did I wake you? I'm really sorry 'bout that. I'll call later and let you get back to sleep." Rachel suddenly felt guilty for snapping at him. Eric was a sweet and nice guy, almost too nice and too sweet for his own good.

"It's okay Eric... Just woke up to a bad dream."

"Would you like to talk 'bout it? I'm all ears." She could almost see his sweet boyish smile, "Or… I could come over and make you some hot chocolate."

"Yeah, sure. 'Cuz I'm so needy that my boyfriend needed to drop his medical duties and fly all the way here to make my nightmares go away," she teased.

Eric's hearty laugh suddenly filled the room. "First of all, you are not needy. I think I'm the needy one, don't you think? Creepily in love too. I mean, right now I can tell you're on the floor stretching your leg. Hmm...not sure if it's the right or the left one though."

It was Rachel's turn to laugh out loud. "Creeper."

"Hah! So, I'm right?"

"Nope, just wanted to call you a creeper," she said breathlessly as she started doing her lunges. "What's the second one."

"Hmm?"

"You said, 'First of all'. So what's 'second'?"

"That you know I'd fly all the way to Seattle in a heartbeat if you need me, Rach." He said it without pause and with such conviction that Rachel felt her heart swell a little. Never in her life had someone, other than her dads of course, treated her with such love and affection. _Not Puck, not Jesse, and definitely not Finn…_

"You still there?"

She needed to get _those_ thoughts out of her head. _They_ are not welcome, not now… not ever. She has moved on. "Eric, I have to go now. Big day today."

"Sure you're okay?"

"Yes, dad."

"Okay, Rach. Call you later?"

"Bye, Eric."

"Go get 'em kitty. Show that theater who's boss."

The line went dead.

_Theatre_. Of course, perfect timing of him to refer to the operating room as such.

_Get a grip. Now's not the time to go back to the past and dwell on what could have been._ She was a freaking surgical intern on one of the best hospitals in the country. She poured her heart and soul into this – 3 years in university, she took summer classes hence only 3 years; 4 years in med school and now she was already nearing her 5th month of internship. She needed to focus on impressing Dr. Yang today and she'd be damned if Rachel freaking Berry isn't the best out of all the interns.

"Big day," Rachel said to no one in particular as she headed for the bathroom. But even before she could open the door, her phone beeped.

It was a text from Elena, a fellow intern. _"Breaking news. New interns coming in from Mercy West. Heard they're good. The fight for the solo is so on."_


End file.
